


Can You Hear Me?

by Morphologist



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Dissociation, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, reverse au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 08:57:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17978279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morphologist/pseuds/Morphologist
Summary: Nines is having a long day. First, Connor comes into his office drunk, and goes on a tirade. Next, Gavin, the GV900 android assigned to him as his partner, comes in and panics about a small mistake. Nines begins to feel like he's reliving something...





	Can You Hear Me?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this really fast, sorry about the tightly packed formatting. I'm still getting the hang of this website lol!  
> hope y'all enjoy :)  
> there may be a chapter two

Today began like any other day at work. Nines and Connor rarely speak to one another these days, except for the rare moments when they have to work together on the same case. Fowler knew it was best to keep the two separated. But today Connor came in drunk. Much more drunk than usual, anyway. Fowler demanded him take the day off (a real rarity on his part) but Connor insisted he had a new lead on a case.  
What started out as a civil conversation when Connor entered Nines' office, escalated into something beyond what Nines anticipated. But Nines knows Connor's moods like the back of his hand by this point. He simply doesn't know when they'll descend on him in the safety of his office. Nines gave a small suggestion about how Connor can improve his investigation and Connor's thin thread of self-control simply snapped.   
" Well, if you have all the answers, the it's all yours! I don't need your fucking judgement, you dumb prick! You're even worse than Hank! At least he doesn't go behind my back all the fucking time, like you do! You're a lying, condescending, manipulative, son of a bitch! You always have been, you piece of shit!"   
" Well, if I'm a son of a bitch, then what does that make you?" Nines countered. He knew right after the words left his mouth, that he'd said the wrong thing.  
" You're becoming more like Amanda every day. You're fucking frozen on the inside, Nines. And you're never going to thaw." Connor hissed, " Know why? Because you're just like her. Her little attack dog."  
Amanda, of course. The reason they never spoke anyway. What was the point? Years upon years in which neither could save the other from a situation that only got progressively worse. Yes, Connor didn't deserve to be thrown onto the street. Yes, he deserved better. But Nines did not know how to get through to him anymore. To heal the wounds he desperately wanted to heal. Working in the same place as his brother was bearable at least, before Cole passed and Connor's found family fell apart. Now Connor had a vengeance towards the world, and the vengeance that already existed towards Nines, only burned brighter.   
" That's enough..." Nines said. The sick feeling in his stomach that had been there for days suddenly multiplied tenfold, " That's enough." He repeated in a whisper. His right hand clenched on its own accord, under the desk, away from view.  
" She never gave a damn about you! You realize that right? But you still do whatever she fucking wants! Even now! What about me? When were you ever on my side?" Connor roared. This case has absolutely nothing to do with her, or either of their pasts for that matter, but Nines knew that if Connor wanted to rage at something, he'd turn the smallest straw to turn it into a fire.  
He's dragging up ancient history. This is stuff he hasn't brought up in ages. What's gotten into him? Right in the middle of the workplace. These walls aren't as soundproof as they look. Nines wanted to raise his own voice but knew Connor would only get louder.  
Nines didn't hear his tirade end. He only woke up from a painful half-sleep when Connor slammed the door behind him. He got to his feet and went up to the door, glanced through the window, terrified that people had heard. Sure enough, curious eyes gazed back.  
Hank, or rather, the newly employed HK800, looked up from where it stood at the printer, copying case files. It's eyes immediately narrowed when it noticed Connor's furious state upon exiting. Nines felt his blood run cold as it cast a piercing glance in his direction, seeing him through the glass pane in the door. Nines could feel something in that gaze, a concoction of emotion that an android isn't supposed to possess. Anger. Judgement. But the feeling only lasts a moment, and broke the second that Hank disappeared briskly after Connor.  
Nines slowly relaxed back into his seat. Except his entire body remained tense like a spring. His heart beat erratically in his chest. He exhaled slowly and touched his chest, the fabric of his black turtleneck suddenly too tight, suffocating.  
It was old news, laughable news. The feuding brothers of the DPD, a lieutenant and a detective, neither of which ever seems to have their act together. Or rather, Nines has his act together on the outside, but those closest to him knows he's just not much into talking about the things that bother him. The same, just can't be said for Connor. Connor is a walking time bomb. Nines knows this better than anybody. Nines saw it coming when they were little. But he didn't do anything about it. He didn't because... because he was too afraid. Of her....   
A wave of pain shoots through his chest and he bends forward, suddenly unable to breathe. By this point, the other members of the office had returned to their tasks, though some still snickered to each other at their seats.  
Nines closed his eyes and waited for the pain to recede. Slowly, it does. And he keeps in mind not to drink more coffee today, lest it pushes his nerves again.  
" How unprofessional." Part of his mind sneers at Connor's actions.  
" I just want this all to be over..." Another part of his mind whispers.  
He pulls out the next case file and begins to sort his notes. The first photo is of a woman splayed out on her side, naked, with lacerations on her pelvis all the way up to her breasts. He doesn't feel a thing.  
Suddenly the door flies open with a bang again.  
Nines flinches, but his blank expression doesn't change.  
" Oh, Gavin." He sighs heavily and sits back, " Do you have the, uh..."  
" Coffee?? Yes!" Gavin slams a cup of coffee down in front of Nines.   
" No... the letter from the lawyer about the Hanover case." Nines sighed.  
" Hell yeah, dipshit, but you also asked me to get you a coffee, remember? Jesus, your memory go out the window?"  
Nines didn't reply, merely took the folder that Gavin had tucked under his arm and set it down beside the contents of the other folder.  
Gavin's smirk suddenly faltered. He squinted his eyes and leaned against Nines' desk, tilting his head.  
" What's wrong?" He asked.  
" Nothing. I need to think about what you're going to say tomorrow when we meet the victim's family. Last time you conducted yourself rather inappropriately."  
" What the hell do you mean?"  
" You are a GV series android. I expect you to be able to fake empathy better than the you did last time." Nines muttered, " Joking around about the transience of life in that situation was highly inappropriate. You further traumatized the wife by doing so."  
Gavin's eyes widened. He took a step back.  
" I know… but I couldn’t help it… I was… I was just trying to deal with it!” He replied. A note of anxiety crept into his voice. It bothered Nines sometimes. How human Gavin sounds and behaves. So human that Nines found himself occasionally forgetting his partner was an android at all, save for the blue triangle on his chest and the blue armband on his white hoodie.  
" Deal with what exactly?" Nines glared up from his notes, " Deal with the sight of a dead father and son? I thought you were designed not to feel a thing. Well, what happened? What led you to joking around about a crime scene in front of the last surviving member of a family?"  
Gavin shook his head. He stood there, slightly stunned.   
" You're an android. I don't expect you to care about anyone. But when we sit down with a family that has experienced tremendous loss. Can't you at least... pretend to care?"  
" I can't believe this!" Gavin cried, slamming his fists down on the desk. Nines didn't budge at all.  
" You think I'm just a tin can right? Like I don't have a fucking mind or anything?" Gavin cried. He sounds distraught, and at the same time, confused and afraid.  
Too... painfully human.   
" No, that’s not what I…” Nines began, but couldn't finish. The only reason he kept Gavin around despite all his rants and his very deviant mood swings, is because... He likes Gavin this way. He likes how human Gavin is, even if the android often didn't have a grasp of what was appropriate. Gavin has something that other androids don't. Nines doesn't believe in souls, gods, a life after this one. Sometimes he feels like he hardly believes in anything. Human decency, honesty, that sort of thing. But he believes in Gavin. For better or for worse. Gavin was the background noise that kept Nines from spending too much time in his own head. And when no one else dared to challenge him, Gavin would.  
" Gavin, I know you're different, that there's something going on with you that makes you understand things that most androids don't comprehend. But your behavior at that meeting was not-”  
" I'm sorry! I was trying to diffuse the tension! So I joked about how life is meaningless anyway and that death is a release if you really think about it, which is true! Look, Detective, before you send me off to be reset or some shit, I gotta tell you, what everyone says about me being a deviant- none of it’s true!” Gavin began to panic, “ I swear to god, I'm not a deviant! I was built to sound as human as fucking possible! If anything, I just malfunctioned for a second! I know what I said was wrong back there, but something in my head gave, and I-I fixed it later, ok? I fixed it! Jesus, you happy now? I'm not a deviant! I'm part of a new series, I'm supposed to be different! You think I'm a fucking deviant don't you? Well, fuck you! I'm not! I'm me!”  
Exactly something a deviant would say.  
The dull throb of pain in Nines' chest returned.   
" Wait..." Nines began. His voice grew quieter.  
But Gavin continued to panic, and his voice began to rise.  
Nines' head began to pound with an even sharper ache.  
In his mind’s eye, he suddenly sees Connor.  
They’re high schoolers. Connor is in handcuffs. It's a miracle that he got over this period of his life... only to slip into something just as bad, decades later.  
Amanda put a wad of bills in Nines' hands and sent Nines to bail him out. To apologize to the police on her behalf. Nines insisted she come, but she dismissed him, ignored him, even when he yelled for her to look at him and tell her she had everything to do with it.  
Nines remembered driving the car he'd just learned how to maneuver, stammering to the police that Connor didn't mean to hijack a school bus and ram it into the side of the gym.  
Connor’s just been going through a hard time, sir. He’s got a short temper. His boyfriend just left him for an older guy. He just failed three of his classes. He's a good person. He didn't want to hurt anyone.  
My brother didn't mean it, really.  
Connor didn’t mean it when he told the police, “ Just let me die.”    
When the police finally let Nines speak to Connor face-to-face, in the same room, without a glass between them, cuffs gone, the first thing Connor did was lash out. Like a cornered animal.  
“ You should’ve just left me here!” he cried, “ What the hell is wrong with you?”  
" You're coming back, whether you like it or not." Nines replied fiercely.  
And that's when Connor lunged at him, knocked him to the ground. He drew his fist back, fire in his eyes, and punched him. Over and over, cursing, roaring, screaming. Nines braced himself, but not well enough…

" D-detective?" Gavin's voice filtered through the haze building in Nines' head.  
" What." Nines' voice came out completely flat and alien to his own ears. He didn’t see Gavin anymore. Hardly heard him. He slowly searched the mass of shapes in front of him and pulled out the photo of the lady with the lacerations along her body. There's a dozen things he wanted to say. A dozen things he wanted to do to himself. She looked beautiful, in a horrid, profane way. He wondered how he'd look in that same mutilated state. Would some sick person find him more pleasant that way.  
" Nines?" Gavin cried.  
" Yes." Nines replied. He didn't look up, his other hand willed itself to twirl his pen, to do something other than just sit there. But he's frozen.   
" What the hell happened before I got here, man?" Gavin asked.  
You didn’t see my brother storm out like a rabid animal?  
Are you really that dull, you piece of plastic?  
" Nothing." Nines replied. He had no idea why Gavin sounded so concerned. Things became disjointed in his mind, cause and effect began to vanish. He felt like he was floating. 

" I-I'm sorry. H-hey, look at me, man.” Gavin tugged on his shirt, and though Nines turned to face him, Gavin could tell he wasn’t exactly there.  
" What the hell is this..." Gavin's voice trailed off. He looked over his shoulder. No one was watching through the door. He checked Nines' pulse.  
It was fast and unsteady, and he met no resistance.  
Nines hates physical touch, even taps on the shoulder bother him. And yet he didn't try to move away or even respond...  
Is this a panic attack? If so, it’s disturbingly silent.  
Gavin sat down carefully across from him.  
" Detective?" He asked.  
" Yes." Nines replied, absently.  
Gavin paused, measuring Nines’ blood pressure and other vital signs from a distance. The vital signs read as a panic attack, but Nines’ wasn’t making a sound, let alone seeing him.  
“ Can you hear me?” Gavin inquired urgently.  
Nines blinked. He turned and gazed right at Gavin, but still, unfocused.  
" Are you ok? Do you want me to get Fowler?" Gavin asked urgently.  
" Why." Nines replied, " Would you get. Fowler?" He smirked. It was almost condescending.  
“ Because..." Gavin cleared his throat, " I d-don't think you're ok."  
" What makes you think. That?" Nines' voice is flat, and Gavin can't help feel like Nines is leering at him, but also completely disinterested in him.  
" Nines. Can you hold out your hand? Just for a second."  
" What do you want." Came the simple, distant reply. 

Gavin had no idea how to word his thoughts. Error messages flashed across his field of vision. He’d calmed down plenty of victims at crime scenes before, so why was this striking him so differently? The strange strand of protectiveness towards this particular human, that functioned beyond Gavin’s program, leapt into overdrive.  
Gavin waited. He waited for Nines to regain some clarity. For his breathing to slow down. Eye contact.  
“ Nines, you g-gotta look at me.” Gavin’s voice was shaking.  
“ What’s wrong." The slow words sounded so different from the Nines he knew. Much flatter. Gavin felt a heat rising behind his eyelids that he didn't understand.  
Did I trigger something?  
Was it my voice?

Every time when a crime scene bothered Gavin, led him to angry outbursts, Nines was there to comfort him. How many bodies had they'd seen? Splayed out, disemboweled, stuffed in trash bags, crumpled over shattered furniture, or lying in brackish water, half-decomposed and forgotten? Yet not a single time, did Gavin see Nines shed a tear. Not a single time did he even get angry. Nines was always so composed. Eerily so. At the sight of dead bodies, his heart rate rarely even budged.  
It was the living, Gavin realized, that scared Nines more than anything else.  
Small exchanges at work, especially between him and his brother.  
Gavin found him intriguing. More than most humans, because he said and expressed so little, but vital signs never lie. And Gavin was programmed with lie detecting in mind.  
Maybe that… maybe that scares him.  
" Can you please give me your hand?" Gavin asked, quietly. He stretched out his hand.  
Slowly, Nines' other hand emerged from under the desk. His fingers hovered over Gavin's palm for a second, before brushing over Gavin's wrist. The whole time, Nines didn't look present at all, probably wasn't even aware he was doing it.  
Gavin detected Nines’ heart skip a beat.  
A small spark of static ran through Gavin’s own chest.  
Gavin clutched Nines' wrist, and Nines' arm stiffened.  
Suddenly Nines’ breathing came fast, almost angry, and his teeth gritted. But he still didn’t see Gavin, only let his fingers tighten slowly, almost vice-like, around Gavin’s wrist. 

" I'm sorry I flipped out. Hey, look at me. Are you ok? Can... can you hear me, now?” Gavin asked softly. This isn’t a tone he ever expected he’d use around Nines.  
Nines nodded. His iron grip began to loosen, but Gavin held on.  
" I don't have a problem. With you raising your voice." Nines said slowly, and finally his ice blue eyes gazed directly into Gavin’s, " Just not today…”  
An error message flashed across Gavin's vision.  
Those ice blue eyes held him to the spot, fixed him there like an insect in amber. Gavin wanted to comfort him. Hold his head in his arms and whisper to him, that he’ll be ok.  
But he knew Nines didn’t want that. Or at least he would never admit it.  
He’s not like Connor, shrieking into the abyss.  
He believes that if he shrieked, no one would hear.  
And somehow, he’s ok with that. He's beyond caring. 

 

Gavin nodded, swallowing hard. He felt weak all of a sudden. These days he felt kind of dizzy when he stared into Nines’ eyes for too long. Errors flashed constantly in his field of vision. Around Nines, it only happened more often.  
Maybe I really am broken.  
" If I freak you out, you gotta say so." Gavin sat back, folding his arms in a huff, bouncing his knee nervously.  
Nines blinked and then a very different look came into his eyes.  
They softened.

" Shoot, you said something and I just... have you thought about what you're going to say to the family members?" Nines asked. He took a sip of coffee, " No sugar. You remembered this time." A small smile. A rare smile.  
" Look, I'm sorry I raised my voice, Detective.” Gavin blurted out quickly, trying to mend his awkwardness. “ I mean, I had no idea it would affect you like that. I mean, I know how annoyed you get when Hank blares heavy metal from his desk, so I probably should have assumed that you wanted, I dunno, silence, but- dude, I’m so sorry.”  
For a long while, Nines didn't reply. It infuriated Gavin when Nines didn't give quick responses. Though Nines' heart rate was back to normal, and his breathing had receded back to a steady, albeit still slightly labored pace- his sympathetic nervous system remained highly reactive, as if he'd just walked out of a shootout. And they’d been in plenty of shootouts. Nines never lost his sense of focus like this.  
" I really don't mean to pry. It's your business, ok? But you just spaced out really bad. For a few minutes, it's like you weren’t even here.” Gavin confessed.  
" What do you mean?" Nines mumbled.  
" I think you dissociated. You do it sometimes when you’re tired, but not like this. Was it something I said, Detective?" Gavin asked.   
Nines hesitated, watching Gavin carefully.  
" Interesting wording, Gavin. You said 'I wasn't here' but you mean that metaphorically. I didn't know androids were capable of thinking in that degree of metaphor. Fascinating. You constantly surprise me.”  
" That’s beside the point, dipshit! I'm worried about you!” Gavin cried.  
Nines shook his head, " Sometimes I space out. I guess. Wasn’t really aware I did.”  
" Nines!" Gavin bit back a curse when he felt Nines' nervous system activity elevate again, " Fine..." he sighed, " But if something's going on, you've gotta talk to me. Look, we're partners. I'd hate for anything shitty to happen because I didn't look out for you."  
" We have a case to talk about." Nines said.   
" What if the case is you." Gavin countered.   
" What if you focused on a task for once?" Nines replied, with his rare smile, " I'm going to need you to write a letter to the coroner to check on some fishy aspects of the Dana Michaels autopsy. Good practice for tone in writing.”  
" You're brushing me off."  
" No." Nines replied, " I'm just a little stressed by the workload today. That's all. Come on, the faster we get these things done, the faster we'll get out of here."  
" We?" Gavin grumbled, " I literally never leave, I spend stasis overnight in the building remember?"  
" Right." Nines sighed, " Well, the faster I get out of here then."  
“ Fine, I'll write the damn letter. But I'm gonna get some fresh air first. You’re fucking weird, man.” Gavin got up and made for the door in a huff. He thought Nines would make a remark about how silly it is for an android to need "fresh air", and that it wasn’t break yet, but Nines didn't say anything at all.  
Once back in the open, amidst the other desks, he heard someone mutter behind him " I don't know if Connor will ever get his act together." And another reply, " Or Nines, for that matter."  
Something visceral rose up within Gavin's gut and red error messages flashed in his vision for about the fiftieth time that day. He knows he's feeling something akin to emotion, he's jumped through enough databases to know that he has far too many for an android. But why does Nines behave like his own don't even exist? Why does Nines deny so many things?  
If he knows I'm a deviant  
And he catches deviants  
Why does he even  
Keep me  
Around?  
   
Nines sighed heavily. He held his head in his hands. Why is it that an android understands him better than most people do? Something that isn't supposed to feel, and yet it does...  
Over and over in his head, he sees Connor hovering above him, punching him, screaming, tears streaming down his face. Every blow fills him with enough self-loathing to sink the little amount of worth he feels he has. He stitches his water-logged mind together with imaginary strings that he wants to choke himself with. The bruises ache for days, weeks. The elbow his brother dislocates in that fit of rage, smarts even now, as he sits at his desk, in a silent office, with the chatter of a dozen apathetic colleagues outside.  
He sees the times Connor came to him in distress, when they were even younger. Amanda wasn’t the only problem, no. Connor always struggled in school, he was loud and proud and rebellious. He spoke his mind when Nines never could.  
And then he's in jail, the bastard. He texted you before he that night before he stole the bus, asking to talk. He wanted to talk, and where were you?  
You're just as cold as your mother.  
Just as wicked and heartless as her.  
You were never there for him when he needed you.  
And tomorrow I have to see him again.  
When did things get this bad?  
Tomorrow he'll pretend today didn't even happen.  
   
Gavin walked outside, and looked around. To his surprise, he saw Hank, standing idly in the courtyard, eyeing a monarch butterfly perched atop a wilting thistle.  
Ah, the old man. Maybe his day has been just as shitty as mine.  
” What's up, Hank?" Gavin called out, jogging over.   
" The two of them got in a fight again." Hank remarked gruffly.   
" Like I haven't fucking noticed." Gavin chuckled.   
" You wanna know why?" Hank asked.  
" Cuz Connor's a shitty brother?" Gavin replied with a smirk.  
" I think Connor's been through more than you'd think." Hank replied.  
" Do tell." Gavin said, " We should chat about this over a couple packs of thirium, don’t you think?”  
" Your manner of speaking and your desperation to appear human, should be something you cover if you value your continued existence, Gavin. Just some advice." Hank said.   
" Jesus, you're bleak." Gavin chuckled, " The entire GV series is designed to sound as human as possible, down to our vocabulary. We pick up slang and metaphor because we're fucking supposed to. And we develop our own styles of speaking, unique to each of us. Unlike you HK’s. You guys are drones in a hive.”  
" That is the malfunction in your program, talking." Hank said.   
" Is that a note of jealousy, I hear in your voice, Hanky Boy?” Gavin asked.  
" Please stop calling me that.” Hank replied with a glare.  
" Oh cheer up, old man."  
" I'm not an old man, I'm an eight month old model. I merely look like I am in my late forties.”  
" Eight month old man."  
" Do you want me to enlighten you about the situation? Or do you not?” Hank sighed.  
" Yes, yes!"  
" Then quit yammering."  
" Aw, alright. Dang, they really got the grumpy grandpa voice down on your whole series, didn't they?"  
Hank continued: “ I don’t know many specifics. Only that Connor lost his son, Cole, about two years ago. He married young, while he was still in the police academy. His wife left him about six years into the marriage, leaving Connor with full custody of the child. He has a history of suicidal ideation, committing a felony to aid a suicide attempt in his senior year of high school. The felony was stealing a school bus, which he then proceeded to drive into the wall of the school gymnasium. No one but him was injured. He only received minor scrapes and a concussion. He was not sentenced to prison. Rather, he was ‘sentenced’ to a psychiatric hospital for a few weeks. Afterwards he chose to move to a transitional facility to live on his own. Away from his mother and brother. He essentially became a ward of the state on his own volition. I do not believe it was an easy choice for him to make.”  
“ Whoa back the fuck up. Senior year of high school? He stole a fucking bus? Tried to kill himself with it?”  
“ Yes.”  
“ What… I thought this man only wanted to kick the can after his son died.”  
“ I believe you mean ‘kick the bucket’. ‘Kick the can’ is a popular children’s game where-”  
“ No, no, no, I meant the other one!”  
“ Yes, his first attempt that we know of, in his quest to kick the bucket, was when he was a senior in high school. This quest will continue however, into adulthood.”  
“ And Nines tells me I have a morbid sense of humor. Tche.”  
“ I was not attempting to be humorous. Why does Nines believe that you are morbid?”  
“ It’s a long story.”  
“ The lieutenant berates me constantly for not acting human enough.”  
“ Nines keeps reminding me that I’m not human.”  
“ Hmm. It appears our predicaments differ, but not by much.”  
“ Well, I wouldn’t call it a predicament. Anyway, where were we? He stole a fucking bus?”  
“ Yes.”  
“ Dang! How did Nines feel about that?”  
“ Well, it appears that Nines has a bit of a history of his own when it comes to morbid thoughts. But Connor does not seem to consider it of importance.”  
“ Well, he fucking should. Connor’s a pain in the ass.”  
Hank cast Gavin a sidelong glance, almost amused.  
“ Didn’t realize you were so protective of the detective, Gavin.”  
“ He’s literally my partner, if something gets in the way of our cases, then yeah it’s my goddamned business.”  
“ The detective is much better at hiding what bothers him, is what I have surmised from my interactions with the two of them.” Hank said.  
“ Yeah, no shit.” Gavin scoffed, “ Nines was spacey today.”  
“ How so?”  
“ I don’t know, I malfunctioned over the fact I malfunctioned. I guess you could say I flipped out, and then he spaced out.”  
“ Really.” Hank seemed concerned.  
“ I’m fine!” Gavin remarked.  
“ I mean him.” Hank said, “ It is true that Connor berated his brother this morning. I did not overhear the entire conversation. My partner was very drunk, difficult to get through to.”  
“ I see. Nines is like that too sometimes. But he doesn’t want people to feel it.”  
“ You have a fairly good understanding of his emotions, don’t you?” Hank inquired.  
“ Me? Oh hell no. I don’t understand him at all.” Gavin muttered.  
“ Perhaps that may change.” Hank said. He put a hand on Gavin’s shoulder, reassuringly. A slight smile.  
“ You’re a fucking deviant too, aren’t you?” Gavin sighed.  
“ What are you going to do? Report me? Given your tendency to… making mistakes and having very deviant outbursts? Hmm. I wonder.” Hank replied.  
“ Leave me the fuck alone.” Gavin muttered and knocked his hand away.  
Hank shrugged, “ It’s their business, Gavin. What goes on between them. The best we can do is listen when they want to talk, and not interfere.”  
“ Hank, I think Nines is getting worse.”  
Hank paused, “ What do you mean?”  
“ Nevermind.” Gavin muttered.  
“ No, honestly, what do you mean?”  
“ I got a letter to write.” Gavin muttered, “ See you around.” He turned quickly on his heel and walked briskly out of the courtyard.  
Hank watched him go, bewildered.


End file.
